Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Teachers are human
beings.No surprise there.Most teachers like their work and enjoy the
interactions with the students and colleagues.So why are so many teachers leaving the field within the first few years?Teachers are happy to tell us why but those
in authority just do not listen.

The Center on Education
Policy did a poll across the country.What it found was that teachers are growing weary of the continuing
demands being placed on them and their inability to have their voices
heard.In fact 94% of those surveyed
said their voices were not taken into account on the state or national
level.They felt there was a hypocrisy
at work.Teachers are expected to
differentiate their teaching in the classroom.They are repeatedly told, one size does not fit all.But when it comes to the standardized testing
requirements, all students take the same test.A majority of teachers feel students spend too much time taking these
tests and preparing for them.There have
been strikes and sick-outs in some of the nation’s largest school districts,
Chicago, Detroit and even in higher education in the University System of
Pennsylvania.The later strike has put
over 100,000 of higher education students out of school.

Given the way the teachers
feel, it is hugely to their credit that many are still in the classroom.Why is that?

Teachers who stay will tell
you they love the work and the kids.They love being part of making a child’s future.Many have probably read Robert Fulghum’s “All
I ever really needed to know I learned in kindergarten”.They have learned to hold hands and stick
together, with their colleagues and with their students.They have tried to live a balanced life.They have tried to keep their eyes on what
really counts day-to-day in what they do.Some of the older teachers remember the first words that Dick and Jane
taught them:Look, Look.They have tried to keep that sense of wonder
that comes from teaching children as you participate in the learning and that
thrilling feeling when a child “gets it”.

Another lesson we learned in
kindergarten is to clean up our own messes.If we were smart we would turn the problem of teacher retention over to
the teachers.I’ll bet they could figure
it out.They know how much should be
expected of them and they would give the children even more.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Ever since 1975 children with
disabilities have been promised a free, appropriate public education
(FAPE).The question is, what exactly
does that mean?The courts have pretty much
decided that free means at no cost to the parents.Therefore, schools cannot charge back to a
parent’s health care policy the cost of related services such as speech or
occupational therapy that might look like a health care cost that is covered by
the parent’s health care insurance.In doing the
charge back, the parent’s benefits under that policy could be diminished;
thereby, incurring a cost to the parent.

One of the bigger issues has
been, what exactly equals appropriate.There is no question but that is a kind of wishy washy word.One parent’s appropriate is one school
system’s over the top expectation.Consequently, parents have done what Americans always do, they have gone
to court.The courts have all agreed
that to be appropriate the child must receive educational benefit from the
education.

However, even the courts
cannot agree on what exactly is educational benefit.

In Endrew vs. Douglas County
School District, the Justices of the Supreme Court have agreed to take up this
very question.The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, ruled last year that a Colorado
student with autism had received “some educational benefit” from his Individual
Education Plan (IEP) before his parents withdrew him over a dispute with the
school district.However, at least one
other federal appeals court has adopted a standard requiring that the IEP
provide a “meaningful benefit” in order to provide FAPE. Of course, meaningful is not exactly measurable either but it does give parents some leverage over the word "some" that could mean anything at all.

The Obama administration has
said that the interpretation of the 10th Circuit is out of synch
with the text, structure and purpose of the Individuals With Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA).Now it will be
up to the Supreme Court to decide.The
Court is working with only eight Justices so that will also have a bearing on
the outcome.

If the Court decides to go
with the higher standard, many school districts across the country are going to
be impacted.One of the criteria for
children receiving paid tuition in non-public approved schools is the failure
of the local school district to deliver FAPE.If the Court comes down on the side of “some” a lot of kids are going to
be shortchanged.But if the Court goes
in the other direction, good enough will also need to be meaningful.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

You know I am getting a bit
tired of the drumbeat that has been going on for multiple years.If you are African-American you are ipso
facto, low achieving and need lots of special help to reach grade level.Sure that is true of some African American students.And it is also true that some Asian students are bad in math.The assumption that African American students
is synonymous with low achievement isn’t just low expectations, it is NO
expectations.These are the worst kind
of stereotypes masquerading as caring educators.

Let’s look at a couple of
cases on point.A recent article in
Education Week discussed the dangers of the Every Student Succeeds Act because
it does not disaggregate data in such a way that the scores of African American
students are pulled out for separate analysis.The article cites a school that is now majority minority.In order to have the school maintain its
reputation as a top quality school, “the principal has asked staff to help all students but with a special emphasis on low-income
students and those of color.”REALLY!So we know that all the African American
students are going to need special academic assistance.How do we know that?Are ALL the African American students in the
school having academic challenges?Why
am I thinking that a number of those kids with darker skin are doing just fine
academically.

Another school, this one in
Maryland, has also become majority minority.That principal is cited as being proactive to narrow the achievement gap
between “all students and African
American students.”So in this case,
the high achieving African American students are included in the “all students”
numbers and contributing to the gap.

Wouldn’t it make much better
sense to concentrate on low-achieving students?What if schools looked at the lowest achieving 20-25% of ALL students
and concentrate remediation on those kids.Could be that there might even be some white, Asian or who
knows what color kids among that group.

There are lots of branded
named programs out there that would make a marketing company proud. These companies are marketing their programs to help schools

serve African American kids. This behavior is one of the basest forms of insults to minority kids.

Wouldn’t it make better sense
to look at the freshman class and identify, regardless of ethnicity and
socio-economic status, the lowest performing quartile and concentrate special
recovery efforts on them?It might
indeed turn out that a disproportionate number of that group is of a particular
race or socio-economic status.So be it.But at least the kids in the remedial group
would have earned their place by needing remediation- not by their color or
economic status.

About Me

I have been in the field of special education for 53 years. I have taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. I also have been an administrator of a local school system's special education department and the assistant superintendent for special education for the Maryland State Department of Education. Thirty-three years ago I started The Harbour School a special private school for children with autism, learning disabilities and other learning challenges.